Murder On The Orient Express - Everyone is a suspect

“Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer. 

Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.”

Welcome to this new review. On this occasion, I’ll analyze one of the best mystery novels of all time. It is not a surprise that this novel holds such a title since it was written by nobody else than Agatha Christie. Without further ado, let’s begin with the review…

The novel does not waste any time and begins by putting our hero, Mr. Poirot, in the scenery of our story, as well as presenting some of the characters that will take part in it. Once inside the train, the readers are introduced to the rest of the characters and also get an accurate description of their personalities thanks to the observations made by Poirot, who becomes our guide in this tangled story. In the next pages, the environment described in the synopsis takes place and the mystery (and our real fun) begins. 

My first opinion is that the story is perfectly constructed in three parts. As I said above, we are introduced to the protagonists—including the victim of the homicide—of this mystery, but we merely know their names and personalities, as that is the only thing that matters at the moment. Soon, the murder takes place and so does the tense atmosphere. 

In the second part, our detective interrogates every single suspect. This is when we know more about them and their questionable pasts. As we read the testimonies, we can’t help but trying to identify the person responsible for the crime. However, our tension just increases when we see that every suspect seems to have a strong alibi. Here lies the strongest aspect of the novel: it keeps the readers engaged to the story from beginning to end by making it seem that everyone is innocent (which is, of course, impossible). I have to make a positive remark about a small yet useful detail: Poirot reviews the facts every few pages, which I found really helpful since it is easy to get lost with all the passengers’ statements. 

Eventually, we reach the third and final part, where the climax of the story takes place. Little I have to say about what happens here without saying spoilers, except that the details take a big role in revealing the identity of the murder, which is another thing that I love about the novel.

What can we learn about the book? Towards the narration, we are informed about a case that destroyed an American family, which unveils a secret of the victim. The most important lesson I can draw after reading the novel is that not everything is black or white but that there is an intermediate point. Agatha Christie wants the readers to ask themselves: is it ever justified to get revenge on someone? In what cases is a person considered to be evil? 

To sum up, Murder on the Orient Express is an exciting novel full of mystery that definitely keeps readers engaged and makes them reflect on good and evil. 

As a final point, this book was adapted for the big screen in 2017 by director Kenneth Branagh. How different is the movie from the novel? Not a lot! The main events are kept, but the movie adds some details to the plot and changes some characters. However, it is still very good. Will you enjoy the book if you have already watched the movie? Definitely! This was actually my case. The only disadvantage of doing that is that you will already know the big revelation. 

Score: 5/5

Favorite Quote: “The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”